Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

DADT Repeal Doesn’t Hurt Retention

Remember last year, when the bigots predicted that if the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy was lifted, it would lead to a mass exodus from the military and impede our ability to retain existing soldiers and recruit new ones? The Pentagon released its recruitment and retention figures for the year following the repeal and — surprise, surprise — that was all bullshit.

All four active-duty services and five of the six reserve components met or exceeded their recruiting goals for fiscal 2012, officials announced today.

The Army Reserve shortfall was the result of precision recruiting, which was implemented in an effort to rebalance the force.

All four active services met or exceeded their numerical accession goals for fiscal 2012:

— Army: 60,490 accessions, for 104 percent of its goal of 58,000;
— Navy: 36,329 accessions, for 100 percent of its goal of 36,275;
— Marine Corps: 30,514 accessions, for 100 percent of its goal of 30,500;
— Air Force: 29,037 accessions, for 100 percent of its goal of 29,037.

The Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force all exhibited strong retention through fiscal 2012.

Five of the six reserve components met or exceeded their numerical accession goals for fiscal 2012:

— Army Reserve: 26,041 accessions, for 97 percent of its goal of 26,875;
— Army National Guard: 47,997 accessions, for 104 percent of its goal of 46,000;
— Navy Reserve: 8,269 accessions, for 100 percent of its goal of 8,255;
— Marine Corps Reserve: 8,910 accessions, for 100 percent of its goal of 8,910;
— Air National Guard: 9,437 accessions, for 115 percent of its goal of 8,210;
— Air Force Reserve: 8,116 accessions, for 101 percent of its goal of 8,031.

All reserve components are on target to achieve their fiscal attrition goals.

Yet another dire prediction disproven. We’ll add it to the very long list.

Comments

But… but… but… if you look at the actual numbers (which the government won’t let you see, but I somehow have), you’ll see that recruitment is actually negative!!! And Romney won the election, and Mexicans have to leave the USA, and lower taxes on the rich actually help poor people…

The bigot argument basically boiled down to the claim that U.S. armed forces members were less professional (and less competent?) than the armed forces of the many countries that didn’t at that time practise discrimination against LGB[*] members or candidates. This claim was buttressed by remarks by a small (and self-selected) group of military people whose only qualification was that they apparently didn’t like gay people.

To the great credit of the various chiefs of the services, when DADT repeal was enacted, they immediately stopped speaking against it, and enacted `get it done’ programs to educate the members. Far from displaying incompetence, the way it was handled showed true professionalism. The smoothness with which the process was handled was a true mark of military competence.

This all brings to mind the speech in The West Wing, over 10 years ago now, where the African-American Navy Chief (as I recall) confronts a group of anti-gay legislators. His point: yes, repealing DADT will cause some problems with order and discipline, but it’s something we can do, and would be worth doing; and he, as a black, would never have been able to reach his rank were it not for Truman’s desegregation of the military.

The next step for the U.S. military (and other armed forces, including Canada) is to confront the significant amount of sexual harassment suffered by women members.

[*] Not `LGBT’, transgendered folks in the military still suffer significant discrimination.

Its somewhat of a shame it didn’t hurt retention more. I suspect there’s a lot of bigots that just went a bit underground with their bigotry, but still act it out. Officers who will give less positive performance evaluations to openly gay service members, psychiatrists and chaplains who will try and ‘convert’ gay servicememers rather than help them with their problems, etc. Our military doesn’t need those folks and if they were to leave rather than stay, the nation would be stronger for it.

It may simply have been a hard push on the last day to meet the goal. “Yeah, it’s past quitting time, but we just need two more accessions. Keep at it, headset jockeys!” “And Ahzib just got number 29,037! Good work, go home guys, and take tomorrow off.”

Remember last year, when the bigots predicted that if the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy was lifted, it would lead to a mass exodus from the military and impede our ability to retain existing soldiers and recruit new ones? The Pentagon released its recruitment and retention figures for the year following the repeal and — surprise, surprise — that was all bullshit.

Does this mean churches that prohibit unrepentant gays from being members with equal rights will be announced an end to this discrimination posthaste?

Not kicking LGBT (caveat on the T) out can’t the troop numbers either. As to the exact on the air force, I’d suspect they hit the goal and then pushed the join date by 1 to make the next reporting period that much easier to meet.

There is still discrimination toward the families of gay military members. They still don’t enjoy the privileges that I have as a military spouse. They don’t qualify for base housing, for medical benefits, for the use of the commissary, etc. Most importantly, the spouses and sometimes even the children can’t collect benefits if the military member dies on duty.
These are the rights that I want to see instated, and soon.

I was thinking the same thing when I looked at those numbers. Back in my EE college days, we called that dry-labbing your results. If an experiment ever came out matching your expected results to several decimal points, you fudged the numbers to make it look real. It was a terrible practice but better than being accused of faking your results entirely.

Well, from what I hear from the homophobes, all it takes is the slightest opportunity and most people will gay right up. It’s no surprise that there is no attrition. By now 90% of our armed forces must be on a fabulous gravy train of butsecks and rug munchin’!